WUHAN - Police in Central China's Hubei province have arrested a man who was on the run for 21 years after allegedly mugging and killing a fishmonger.

The public security department of Hubei province said the suspect surnamed Pei was a member of a gang responsible for over a dozen of attacks targeting fish dealers in the city of Hanchuan in 1998 and 2003.

Pei was believed to be responsible for two cases in 1998, in which he and three others bludgeoned and robbed two fish dealers, one of whom later died of a skull fracture.

Police busted the gang after they committed 14 robberies and injured several fishmongers in 2003. Three members of the gang had received sentences ranging from the death penalty to prison terms, but Pei and another suspect surnamed Xiong went into hiding.

Police said they had never dropped the case and managed to nab Pei in Guangdong province. The hunt for Xiong is ongoing.

Local newspapers said Pei had been doing odd jobs to get by and never returned to his hometown or made any friends over the past 21 years. It cited police as saying Pei reacted calmly to the arrest, saying he could eventually be freed from a life of hiding.